How to Recycle the Right Way

12

Sep2017

Wondering how to make your recycling less of a chore? Maybe it’s because you’re not doing it right? There is in fact a right way and a wrong way to recycle and if you’ve been doing it wrong all these years then you’ll appreciate these tips on doing it the right way to take the hassle out of this necessary household chore. It could even save you some valuable time in the process.

Rinse and clean

Once you’ve finished with your bottle or juice or jar of sauce, rinse it quickly under the tap to get rid of any lingering food or drink residue before putting it into the recycling bin. This isn’t technically an essential part of recycling as these containers will be washed anyway to remove contaminants, however it will help reduce any unwanted smells and also reduce the risk of vermin or pests being attracted by the food smells to your home if your recycling collection isn’t due for a while.

Squash

Make sure you save room in your recycling bins by stamping on the cans to make them smaller, and opening up any carboard boxes to flatten them down. It saves room in your bins too so you can fit more in.

Remember your recycling dates

There’s nothing worse than forgetting what day your bins are emptied – so pay attention to the dates around bank holidays and public holidays, and if you’re going away on holiday remember to leave your recycling out to be collected, and ask a neighbour to bring your bin in.

Don’t forget about all the other material you can recycle

Have you checked out our latest blog posts? We highlighted 7 things that you should be putting in your recycling bin, but probably aren’t, which contains a surprising list of items that you are probably throwing away regularly. See if there are additional items you could be adding to your recycling collection every week.

Don’t waste time where you don’t have to

If you can’t bear the thought of scrubbing off labels from jars, then don’t panic because you don’t need to worry about doing this yourself. One of the key benefits of commingled waste, where multiple waste streams are mixed in together, is that it saves you so much time as you don’t need to separate plastic, paper, glass, cardboard and aluminium cans into different bins.

Check the labels

Different types of plastic have different recycling needs, like plastic food trays and plastic film which covers the food tray, and plastic bottles and plastic bottle caps. Most manufacturers will detail on the packaging what can be recycled, so pay attention so that you’re not throwing away materials unnecessarily. Similarly, check the materials that you throwing away can in fact be recycled – one common everyday item many people assume can be recycled is takeaway coffee cups, but because these cardboard cups are treated with plastic inside to make them waterproof, they can’t be pulped along with other paper products. Adding them to your recycling will just contaminate the waste further.